The Haunted Card Room at Old Oak Rock

Dear readers, when we put out a call for a haunting tale for this Halloween edition, we heard more than a few stories about things that go bump in the night. But none quite matched this spine-tingling yarn from a historic East Coast Club that we’ll call Old Oak Rock. Pour yourself a stiff drink - you’re going to need it for this one.

Founded in the 1870s, Old Oak Rock was a bastion of East Coast society where railroad tycoons played cards with shipping magnates, and banking executives shared cigars with textile mill owners. The membership rolls read like a who's who of Gilded Age aristocracy - the kind of place where even a steel baron might find himself on the waiting list. These days, the club is better known for its wine list and heavy “country club” pours, but it's an altogether different kind of spirit that brings us this month's tale.

Of all Old Oak Rock's colorful characters, none was more notorious than Cornelius "The Admiral" Blackwood. A shipping magnate who made his fortune running tea clippers from China to Boston, The Admiral was known for his endless appetite for high-stakes whist games that would last until dawn - and his uncanny ability to win more often than probability should allow.

One stormy night in 1876, during a particularly heated game, eagle-eyed Dr. Montgomery spotted The Admiral with more aces than a deck typically holds. The reaction was swift - the influential table held a quorum of board members and The Admiral was kicked out of the club on the spot!

As thunder cracked outside, The Admiral faced his accusers in the card room, his face illuminated by lightning flashes through the windows. "Gentlemen," he sneered, straightening his cravat, "curse this room and all who deal within it. The Admiral shall forever keep watch!" Minutes later, they found him face-down behind the 18th green, struck dead by lightning, a solitary ace of spades clutched in his smoking hand.

In the nearly 150 years that have passed since that fateful night, strange occurrences have plagued the card room. Members report the sounds of cards shuffling in empty rooms, glasses hanging above the bar suddenly crashing to the ground and on stormy nights, the distinct aroma of sea-salt and Cuban cigars - though smoking was banned decades ago.

Then, late one night several years ago, newly installed surveillance cameras caught longtime locker room attendant Old Tom Sullivan rigging nearly invisible “magician’s string” to a wine glass above the bar. The jig was up.

Old Tom Sullivan fessed up to years of staged “ghost actions” that had been passed down from locker room attendants through the years ever since The Admiral’s famous curse. One long since deceased attendant had even gone so far as trapping a raccoon and keeping him in the walls of the card room during the Great Depression!

But there was one thing neither Old Tom nor any previous locker room attendant ever orchestrated or understood: Every year on the anniversary of The Admiral's death, at precisely 11:47 PM, the ornate mirror behind the bar - the same one that hung there in 1876 - clouds over like sea glass, while the antique barometer beside it plummets to stormy readings, no matter the weather outside. The phenomenon lasts exactly three minutes, the time it reportedly took to find The Admiral's body that fateful night.

So dear readers, is the card room really haunted? Or perhaps the club’s general managers have had their own sophisticated ruse going for the past 150 years and haven’t been caught yet? The truth might be as cloudy as the card room mirror, but one thing’s for certain: of all the people kicked out of country clubs through the years, The Admiral is the GOAT when it comes to never really leaving!

Poll Question

Last Week's Poll Result

Joe McDuffer's ex-wife is looking for a new husband that does not play golf! Which of these occupations would be the worst choice she could make for her next husband?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Doctor (6)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Insurance Salesman (19)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Real Estate Agent (7)

Congrats to our “Comment of the Week” winner - Jeof W.

Insurance Salesman won in a landslide and Jeof W. summed it up best with his comment “Let the annuitous commissions rain in while slapping it down the fairway, occasionally escorting a client for 18 as well.”

For his poetic comment, Jeof wins a Short Par 4 golf towel!

Do you see that? All you had to do was vote in a poll, leave a comment and you could have won! But you let some guy named Jeof win instead! Don’t let it happen again - ROCK THE VOTE!

Roll a pack of cigarettes into your sleeve and get ready for the tale of a member’s offspring that sprung in the wrong direction!

How Can I Refer My Friends?

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